Comment on: Hawking Radiation from Ultrashort Laser Pulse Filaments (1012.2686v2)

Abstract: In a paper Belgiorno {\em et al} claimed to have observed the analog of the Hawking effect because of the detection of radiation in a frequency range in which what they called "phase horizons" existed. They created rapidly moving pulses of light in a silica glass whose Kerr effect altered the refractive index to create those horizons. Unfortunately, while the observations are very interesting, the cause of the radiation is not understood, and we feel it is not justified to call this a detection of the Hawking effect in an analog system.